Race Medals and Swag – Part 3

I know I slacked off a bit over the weekend with posting, but rest assured I’ve been getting my runs in, more on that a bit later.

First to the final part of my race medals and swag rants. Part 3 will look at races that give runners something other than a medal for finishing. And I’m not referring to marathons that give you a finishers shirt in addition to a medal. I’m talking about races that hand out something in place of a medal.

More often than not, trail races are the ones that hand out something that isn’t a piece of metal. Granted, I haven’t run too many trail races, but I’ve done a few. I got what was essentially a bottle opener on a ribbon, a coozie, and a block of wood from those races. My block of wood, laser cut with the race name and place, is far and away my favorite. I also ran a Half in which we got a finishers poker chip, which I thought was awesome.

Some races also give out a pint glass or a mug, probably the most useful item. Market to Market Relay gives out a pint every year, and top 75 (I think) finishers at the Midnight Madness 10k get a mug. I’ve always said I prefer to get things as opposed to medals for no other reason than that they are something different.

If you dive into longer races (which someday I will) it’s very common for the finishers “prize” to be a belt buckle. Of course, I have no experience in this area as of yet, but one day I hope to add one of these to my collection of things.

Run: I’ve got some catching up to do here. On Friday, I tackled some stairs in Munn Woods. Sixty nine stairs one way, 12 times. That was a lot of stairs, and on Saturday morning my calves were feeling it.

On Saturday, I churned out a relatively easy 13 miles (and some change) with the Vardos. No, the last mile wasn’t easy, but at that point my fuel was about gone. Still, to hit a 7 minute pace for the morning was pleasant, knowing that I wasn’t going full steam ahead all the time.

On Sunday, I fired off another 12. I was hoping for it to be slower than it was, and recruited some Vardos to crawl out of bed and run with me in the morning. Well, it didn’t work out that way. Although I was able to hit 7:30s at a VERY even clip, which is something I typically struggle with. I was surprised, though, that my cadence was incredibly high. Like over 200 high. I have no explanation for this.

Today, it looks like the rain will hold off, so it’ll be time for some trails. Since I can’t hit the gym for some spin, I’ll use my day off to tackle some challenging, and probably muddy, trails at the Ledges. Hoping to get 10 miles to bring my holiday weekend total up to 35.